My Dear Charlotte is a British Regency mystery set in the early 1800s andinfused throughout with the actual language of Jane Austen, one of theworld's great stylists and comic writers. Hazel Holt has published 19 Mrs.Malory mysteries in the tradition of Barbara Pym and has admirers around theworld. My Dear Charlotte is a departure from her other work. It is anovel-in-letters written "with the assistance of Jane Austen's letters."From the Introduction by Jan Fergus:
"Of course, you don't have to love Austen to love this book. If you enjoydetective novels, you will find here a completely satisfying murder mystery,coupled with a romance (or more than one, in fact). My Dear Charlotte givesyou, in addition to mystery and romance, a portrait of the world of theEnglish gentry at around 1815, immediately after the defeat of Napoleon-itsmanners and its moral certainty. As in Austen, Napoleon is not directlymentioned, but his shadow is there: one brother of the heroine is a sailorand the other a junior diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. It's the socialworld at home that is central, however, with its balls, visits, courtships,gossip, and of course murder, underlining the tensions and rifts within thatapparently civilized society.
But it's readers of Jane Austen who will get the most pleasure from My DearCharlotte. It is in my opinion the only successful attempt to re-create theworld of Austen's novels, better even than the best of Georgette Heyer'sRegency romances. Holt does much more, though: she has chosen to write anovel-in-letters, which allows her to incorporate witty quotations directlyfrom Austen's letters into her novel, quotations about persons, occasions,the minutiae of daily life from housekeeping and shopping to the weather andhuman nature."
Fans of Sharon Lathan, Georgette Heyer and Barbara Pym will love this newmystery.
Genre: Mystery
"Of course, you don't have to love Austen to love this book. If you enjoydetective novels, you will find here a completely satisfying murder mystery,coupled with a romance (or more than one, in fact). My Dear Charlotte givesyou, in addition to mystery and romance, a portrait of the world of theEnglish gentry at around 1815, immediately after the defeat of Napoleon-itsmanners and its moral certainty. As in Austen, Napoleon is not directlymentioned, but his shadow is there: one brother of the heroine is a sailorand the other a junior diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. It's the socialworld at home that is central, however, with its balls, visits, courtships,gossip, and of course murder, underlining the tensions and rifts within thatapparently civilized society.
But it's readers of Jane Austen who will get the most pleasure from My DearCharlotte. It is in my opinion the only successful attempt to re-create theworld of Austen's novels, better even than the best of Georgette Heyer'sRegency romances. Holt does much more, though: she has chosen to write anovel-in-letters, which allows her to incorporate witty quotations directlyfrom Austen's letters into her novel, quotations about persons, occasions,the minutiae of daily life from housekeeping and shopping to the weather andhuman nature."
Fans of Sharon Lathan, Georgette Heyer and Barbara Pym will love this newmystery.
Genre: Mystery
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